Beer and Baseball: A Failed Promotion

4bartenders.com (for bartenders, those who want to be and other scoundrels)

I know a couple of die-hard baseball fans, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll go to the ballpark just for the games. Sometimes they often choose what tickets they purchase based on the promotions associated with that particular game. Here's a real and classic baseball and beer promotion that failed.

The Stadium: Cleveland Municipal Stadium

The Year: 1974

The Promotion: 10-Cent-Beer Night . To bring fans to see the miserable Cleveland Indians, management decided to sell 10-ounce cups of beer for only 10 cents at a game against the Texas Rangers.

What went wrong: Management forgot one small detail: drunk people get restless. More than 25,000 fans showed up for the event, most of them already tipsy at the gate.

Among the more tame incidents was a woman who flashed the crowd from the on-deck circle, a father-son team mooning the players (good bonding experience, I guess) and fans jumping on the field to meet shake hands with the outfielders.

Then, in the bottom of the ninth, the Indians tied the game, but never got a chance to win. Fans started throwing batteries, golf balls, cups and rocks onto the field and one even took the glove of the Rangers right fielder.

As the player rushed into the stands to get his glove back, fans starting swarming the field to stop him and threw chairs to block his way.

The Outcome: The Indians were forced to forfeit the game and nine fans were arrested. The AL president forced the franchise to abandon the promotion idea after understating “There was no question that beer played a great part in the affair.”

...the smart thing would have been to charge at least a quarter a beer! ;)

Guiness: Less Calories Than OJ

4bartenders.com (for bartenders, those who want to be and other scoundrels)

It seems that everyone is on a path to living a fuller and healthier life style. Some monitor their activities and exercise, some watch what they eat and drink and still others count their calories. Now, which would you choose between these two for the lower caloric intake: a Guiness draft stout or a glass of OJ?

Per AskMen.com, how many of you would believe that a Guinness draft has fewer calories than orange juice? Two common misconceptions surround the physical makeup of "the black stuff.” (i.e. Guiness). The first is that it's black (officially it has a ruby red color), and the second is that it's a heavy-handed beer, calorie-wise.

The reality is that 12 ounces of the Guiness full-bodied, ruby red stuff has just 125 calories, which is less than the same amount of the orange stuff (OJ: 183 calories) and the white stuff (skim milk: 135 calories). It's also less than many popular beers, including regular Budweiser (143), Coors Original (148), Dos Equis (145), Miller Genuine (143), Sam Adams Boston Lager (160), Sierra Nevada Stout (225) and Anchor Porter (205). Even Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, with 176 calories per 12 ounces, is comparatively low in calories.

Beer Coincidence?

"24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day ...coincidence?" - anon

Pints For Prostates

4bartenders.com (for bartenders, those who want to be and other scoundrels)

Prostate Cancer Awareness: Reaching Men Through The Universal Language of Beer

If you recall not that long ago women ran two unique promotions regarding breast cancer. The first was "donate a bra for cancer" where women donated their used bras to raise money for breast cancer research. The other was to type in their bra color in their FaceBook status box. When this promotion was in effect, you couldn't help notice that there was a plethora of colors being displayed in response to the FB Wall question: "Whats on your mind? For those unaware of the promotion, all you saw were the words "pink, yellow, tan, black, white, beige and an occasional red or so" being posted ...if anything, it did cause controversy as well as to bring attention to breast cancer awareness.

Guys, on the other hand, can suffer from another kind of cancer ...but up to now have not been too open in support for prostate cancer awareness and research. When you really think about it, it really is a difficult topic to promote ...and then the question is "how to promote it?"

Well, 'lo and behold, there is a movement afoot started by a prostrate cancer survivor himself. Rick Lyke is the Founder of Pints for Prostates who came up with the very unique way of promoting prostate awareness amongst men ...beer! For the most part, beer is the general common denominator amongst men and the beer market is mostly a male demographic. Coming up with the "Pints for Prostates" name was a brilliant way of connecting men, beer and prostrates together under one umbrella ...and in a classy, masculine way.

So, while women may do their cancer promotion of awareness with bras, men will hoist up their elbows and clink their beer mugs in their promotion of prostate awareness.

For more information:

http://www.pintsforprostates.org

http://www.ustoo.org/pints

FaceBook Group: http://bit.ly/pints

Note: 4bartenders.com has chosen Pints For Prostates as our cause célèbre and will provide additional articles, events, updates and promotions regarding it in future postings. We encourage you to take a moment, click on their web or FaceBook site and support the cause ...that one click might save one life! ...and it may be yours!

Al Bundy Quote

4bartenders.com (for bartenders, those who want to be and other scoundrels)

"Pretty women make us buy beer; ugly women make us need beer." - Al Bundy